


Journey to Queen's Hive

by DenseHumboldt



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Rey, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Gift Fic, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mystery, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Protective Ben Solo, Protective Kylo Ren, Reylo - Freeform, Sexual Tension, Shy Ben Solo, UST, Unresolved Sexual Tension, fic prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 01:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20827343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenseHumboldt/pseuds/DenseHumboldt
Summary: The handful of Rebels have returned to Coruscant to try and rebuild their Rebellion. To do that they must work with the shadowy Arm's Dealers, Har'Kos, who run the Coruscant underworld.Their existence challenges the First Orders' expanding grip on the Galaxy drawing Kylo Ren into the Rebel plot to find their leader.





	Journey to Queen's Hive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lovelylittlelion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelylittlelion/gifts).

> A response to a prompt left on my tumblr. I think I went slightly to the left of expectation but I hope this is still entertaining.
> 
> I am a Reylo shipper but definitely not a Reylo writer so please bear with me. 💖DH

The space station had not been active in almost a century, its hull was embedded in the asteroid that had struck it. Officially moving it from derelict to decommissioned. Crystals formed where the metal plates met barren rock. The station ossified into a glittering jutting bone. Drex watched it appear through the transparisteel window of the Har'Kos' ship. A drifting lifeless place growing closer and closer. She had spent the last three days sweating in the sealed crew cabin, she could smell the animal scent dried close to her skin. She knew what awaited her in the space station. Helping the rebellion had been her final mistake. Only the already dead saw the inside of the Queen's Hive.

She was the only life form on board, the Luxtroopers had taken her outside her home on the lower levels of Coruscant and traveled with her in the freezing ship. They had not fed her and her stomach turned inside out as she begged the sonic for water. No matter how long she sat beneath the vibrations the sour stench of fear clung to her.

As the asteroid grew larger and the details more distinct Drex wished death would take her before she met the Queen. Her breath fogged and she wondered if it would be as cold inside the asteroid. She did not want to die like this; shivering and scared. She did not want to watch her last breath hang in the air as she died. She rubbed her hands over her face, glancing at her biceps as the bruises from the Luxtroopers faded to green.

She needed a plan.

* * *

Rey was waiting in the neon-lit bar in mid-level Coruscant. It was a nice place, nicer than the places the rebellion usually took her. Other than the garish blue and red lights, everything else in the bar was obsidian black. the surfaces drank in the colors, making them puddle and pool as if every table and chair were a painting. Rey wore basic black leggings and a tunic, not remotely the dress code for a place like this. She had only been allowed in because she had convinced the doormen. Her eyes had been heavily-lined with black kohl and her hair twisted up behind her head by Leia's confident hands. She kept her lower face veiled so only her eyes could be seen. She stayed at the bar watching the crowd in the black polished surface behind the counter. Her mind open to the flowing of the force in the room.

Rey was on edge. This place was too nice for Drex. It was too nice for anyone still part of the Rebellion. Currently, they were all crammed in a series of apartments across the upper level of Coruscant, old Organa holdings. Rey was staying in Leia's suite. She had appointed herself Leia's unofficial bodyguard and the General had let her. Rey wondered at times if Leia was humoring her need to control her surroundings or if the woman mourned something Rey reminded her of. She preferred the former. Rey didn't want to be the one continuing Leia's sorrow. She also did not like leaving her alone. A small part of herself braced every time she returned to the suites that everyone would be gone and she would be all alone again.

Rey shook her head to clear the nagging fear. She slipped her glass beneath the veil and took a sip. It was something blue and sour that made her tongue ache for water. Drex was late. Rey turned to survey the bar.

She felt the frisson of tension as the doors opened. Two women entered, their skin was orange, like fruit and their black hair swept upwards revealing high foreheads. Their many bracelets clinked as they walked. Rey closed her eyes for a moment and allowed the room to flow through her, like siphoning water. The temperature and swell unchanged from the time before they entered. She could feel them but they had no heat or mass, only the glow of the force within them. 

Luxtroopers.

She opened her eyes and began to move. Her stomach curdled as she realized this could only mean Drex had been caught and her handlers had set Rey up. She slipped through the crowd towards the balcony. Around her, she felt the heat of glances. Her frustration rocketed up as they looked at her, judged her. It was as if she still reeked of Jakku. She did not look at them as she slid past. She tried to breathe through the tightness of her chest. Her mind was trying to distract her. She had to focus. She could feel the strange force signature of the Luxtroopers hovering inside the bar. They were prepared to kill and she was unarmed. The lightsaber was beneath her bed in pieces. She longed to fix it but she did not know how to do it. Her usual instincts were blocked as she looked at it as if the lightsaber cloaked itself. Leia told her to be patient. That it would all make sense eventually. Rey could be patient.

Coruscant air was not refreshing. It carried with it only artificial smells and forced breezes. It was air at the mercy of the cruisers and crafts that flew between the buildings. Rey walked confidently towards the railing. She could feel the Luxtroopers drawing closer. They had spotted her.

Heat bloomed behind her and Rey crouched in time for two blaster bolts to cut through the air and absorb into the force field around the balcony. The small crowd began to murmur and move as the Luxtroopers closed in. Violence was not unusual in Coruscant. Her cover blown, Rey ran towards a pillar. She reached out with the force and tampered with the field generator. She dimmed its power long enough she could grip the pillar and swing around to the outside before the shield returned. The last thing she needed was the Har'Kos knowing Drex had been working with a Force-user.

The ornate twisting metal of the exterior allowed Rey to slot her hands and feet to slowly descend the outside of the building. She was higher than she had ever climbed before. It made her dizzy with exhilaration. Above her the field pulsed two more times with blaster fire before there was silence. They would be moving through the building to find her again. She needed to move down as many levels as possible from the outside before finding a way in again. She kept her eyes forward. She didn't look down or up, instead, she let her instincts guide her.

She couldn't move quickly, the changing facade of the building forcing her to move carefully. She kept her mind open as she approached each level prepared for the Luxtroopers to be waiting for her at every window. It began to rain, the moisture moving in quickly as the venting of the atmosphere caused a dramatic weather shift. That was the problem with Coruscant its massive city-state destroyed the natural order. Rey gripped to the exterior of the building as best she could. She had to lower herself even more slowly, even more deliberately. Inside the buildings was a pent up sea of life forms. Tracking the Luxtroopers inside while maintaining her balance outside was nearly impossible. Despite the cold rain sweat poured down her. The veil began to cling to her mouth and the kohl stung as it ran into her eyes. She felt as if she was being suffocated. She reached up to pull the veil away and that was when she felt it. Felt him.

Her grip stuttered with the shock of it. Her muscles strained as she tried to stay on the metal as the rain poured and his force signature battered at her. She slipped.

She was falling. She tried to slow herself but she was wary even at that moment that using her abilities would alert him to where she was. If he didn't know already. Her hands reached out instinctively to try and recapture the metal. Instead, a warm leather-gloved hand grabbed her. The inertia swung her into the building. Before she could grab a foothold again she found she was being dragged up through the window.

Kylo Ren had been searching for her. Word of his mother's return to Coruscant had reached him immediately. He had defied Hux's expectations by taking the news calmly. Crait had crystallized something in him. A stillness, patience he had lost briefly in the frenzy of killing Snoke. In the mad joy of freedom, he allowed himself to be lost. His failure had left him to question what he meant to do with his new power. He had no answers. He only knew he would not let Hux be right about him. The stillness was more deadly than rage. Instinct told animals to run from the wave but drink from the pond.

He had slipped from the palace on Coruscant. The guards he had posted just beyond his mother's suites had told him that someone had left alone. Every time she left he followed her. She did not know it but he had been just beyond her senses whenever she was alone. Now as the rain battered his body he hung out the window pulling her back inside. She clawed at his back as he wrapped his arm around her ribs to lift her. She planted her feet on the sill of the window and roared against the rain, dragging at him. He wondered if it was the rage at being caught or a half-hearted attempt to pull him out the window. He tugged her the rest of the way inside, pulling her soaked and shivering half beneath his cloak. He could feel humidity rise between them as the water met his body heat. The covering she wore over her face stuck to her revealing in soaking tender detail the curve of her chin and the open panting of her mouth. Black paint from her eyes ran down her face. She shouldn't be so beautiful to him.

She ripped the silk from her face and balled it up in her fist. She used it to scrub away the trails of black. He longed to take it and do the job for her.

"Supreme Leader, I see you slipped your gilded cage," she bared her teeth at him.

"I see you are still blindly endangering yourself for an unworthy cause."

She made to push past him, but she paused. He could feel her senses trembling. She shrunk back into his shadow. He searched with his mind for what had frightened her. What he found confused him.

"What are they? Who is following you?" He whispered, hunching his shoulders so she was even more below him.

"A villain apparently," she hissed through her teeth at him but she did not step past him. Her eyes on the doorway behind him.

Kylo Ren scoffed at her. 

"You didn't even make it hard." He reached out to her, her disgusted look stopping his hand in its path. He wanted to touch her. "You did nothing to hide where you were, where you were going. Admit it, you wanted me to find you."

Her hands clenched at her sides, her face blank as she forced herself to look past him to the doorway. Kylo Ren felt them again, closer. Why did they hunt her? Who dared to?

The sound of shoes and the tinkle of gold. Heat rose as they fired their blasters into the room. Kylo reached out holding the streaks of energy in the air.

"Where is your weapon?" He grit through his teeth as he hurled the bolts aside and turned, the red of his lightsaber illuminating the room.

"I don't have one," she pronounced behind him. Two women stood in the doorway, their hands molded into blasters.

"Why not?" He demanded as they fired again. He blocked the bolts with a swing of his saber. He took stomping steps forward as the blasters continued to fire.

"Your guards search for them'" she flung accusingly at him. She stepped from behind him and went searching through the room. The blasters turned to her.

Rey hurled a metal vase at them. Then a glass ornament. Kylo Ren grew impatient, with a guttural snarl he charged forward slicing into them. Cybernetics sparked as they slid in half, steam from boiling hydraulics fluid making the air acrid. Kylo covered his nose with his cape as he stalked closer. Rey ran past him kneeling over them. Her scavenger hands ripping into their clothes, digging to the mechanics beneath.

"What are they?"

"Luxtroopers," she muttered as she moved through their wiring. The faces of the women shrunk and melted into blank metal skulls. It was sickening to watch but Kylo could not look away.

"What?"

She looked over her shoulder at him, a smug tilt to her eyebrow. "Didn't your vast Intelligence Sector brief you on the Har'Kos?"

"Who are they?"

"Depends who you ask," she said turning back to the bodies as Kylo hovered over her like a bat. "Some would call them Arms dealers, war profiteers, smugglers-"

"Smugglers?"

"The Har'Kos are good at procuring things if you have the credits. And the Luxtroopers are their enforcers."

Rey made a small whoop and pried a drive from the body, she rubbed it vigorously on the shirt of the downed Luxtrooper to remove the acid that was trying to initiate the self-destruct protocol. She wrapped it in a scrap she tore from their shirt and tucked it in her tunic.

She stood and turned into Kylo. She took a half step back. When had he gotten so close?

"And why were they looking for you?" His voice was so deep. It made awareness skitter like pebbles down her spine.

"I wanted them to find something for me. Apparently, the answer was 'no'."

"And what did you want?" His hand came up to reach for her again. Reach beyond her into her mind even though he knew she would never allow him there again.

Rey took a step back as her defenses shuttered around her. Her boot knocked into the downed Luxtrooper. It spasmed and a bolt blossomed from its blaster.

"No," Kylo cried. He grabbed it in the air but not before it met Rey's skin. She cried out as the smell of burning filled the room. She fell forward into him and Kylo caught her. He stepped back and let go of the bolt so it hit the wall behind where they had just stood. He felt the pain in her rise and he reached out to dull it. She slumped forward and Kylo lifted her wary of the ugly black hole in her side.

He carried her to his cruiser slumping her into the passenger seat. She sagged over and he had to lift her to get into the pilot's side. Her eyebrows crinkled and a soft complaint left her lips.

Kylo Ren usually felt uncomfortably large in cruisers, but with Rey curled beside him, it felt unbelievably tight. The rain splattered the shield as he piloted them through Coruscant. Rey fought to regain consciousness.

"Where are you taking me?"

"You need medical attention," he answered barely looking at her. She was so pale.

"Take me to Leia's," she muttered with her eyes still closed.

"Any droids there will be fifteen years out of date," he answered her. They would go back to the palace. How could she dream he would take her anywhere else?

She reached for him, her hot hand finding the sliver of skin exposed at his wrist as he controlled the steering. Her voice was barely a whisper, "Ben, please."

* * *

Kylo Ren never thought he would return to the Organa suites. He lifted Rey from the cruiser, grateful the rain had stopped.

"I can walk," she panted into his shoulder. He felt the weakness in her muscles. The pain that wracked through her.

"And I could teach you to use this pain."

"Never," she struck him with her palm in his chest but it was weak. Barely a protest.

The suites were dark as he opened them. The lock was as easy to force as it was when he was a child.

"Is anyone here?"

Rey groaned, "I forgot. She's seeing-"

"Seeing who?" Kylo demanded, shifting her higher in his arms. No droid came to meet them.

"I won't tell you. Put me down," she kicked her legs uselessly. She hissed as he only gripped her tighter.

The lights came on as he walked into the apartment. It was stripped bare. Nothing remained inside. The walls had faded squares where paintings had hung for generations.

"Where is everything?" He asked without thinking. Rey was dead weight in his arms. He could feel she was slipping away again. "Where is the droid?"

"How do you think we got the credits?" She murmured into his cowl.

"You need medical attention," he repeated uselessly. He needed to put her down. "Where do you sleep?"

"First door on the left," Rey answered. Her voice barely made it past her lips. Kylo Ren swallowed. He knew where that door would lead.

Ben Solo's room was unchanged. Kylo hesitated as he sidestepped in the door with Rey. She was forcing herself awake as he sat her on the bed. She leaned forward and he crouched in front of her.

"You have to leave before Leia gets back." She swallowed hard around the pain. If the Luxtroopers hadn't come Kylo wondered what would have happened. Would they have fought? Would he have even revealed himself to her? Or just watched silently for another night?

Her hands moved to the closure of her tunic. He rocked back on his heels as he realized what she was doing.

"Are you going to help?" Her voice was tight with pain.

"What?" He asked dumbly.

"Then look away," she hissed. Kylo stood awkwardly turning to the books and toys that littered the shelves.

"Why did you take the drive?" He asked as he heard her breathing change. There was the sound of her shirt hitting the floor and he heard her move to pull something from beneath his bed.

"None of your business," her breathing was short. He smiled as he felt her focus on the pain, drawing the power to move from it. Her instincts led her towards the dark, even without his influence. 

He heard the click of a med box. He glanced over his shoulder. He could see all of her naked back; the tan, and freckles marred by the wound below her ribs. He looked forward again feeling the heat creep up his neck.

She made a frustrated sound. He heard her hiss as she pulled her shirt back on.

"What are you doing?" He kept his eyes forward. Barely moving his head.

"I can't reach. I am going to go find Finn. You have to leave." She gathered the medkit and stood up. The idea of the traitor touching her made something in him snap. He reached out and grabbed her arm.

"I will help," he said in a gravelly voice. Something dropped low in Rey's stomach.

"It's fine, Finn will-"

Kylo was already taking the kit from her. He crossed the room in two strides to the nightstand. He pulled off his gloves dropping them beside the kit.

"Come here," Kylo nodded to the bed. Rey was suddenly very aware of how poorly she had closed the tunic, of how small the room was, what an intrusion it was for her to sleep here. She had begun to think of it as her room but it was Ben's. A monument to who he could have been.

She sat on the edge of the bed, facing the headboard, one leg tucked beneath her. She could see him from the corner of her eye. She tried not to notice that his hands were shaking or that her heart hurt in her chest.

"What should I do?" She asked with tightly, her hands perched on the closure of her shirt.

"Leave it. I can work around it," he turned to her and passed her the bacta-patch.

She could feel the heat of him behind her, the slow exhale of his breath as he crouched. His hand pushed up her shirt. She breathed in sharply as he cleaned the skin around the burn. His fingertips where they held her shirt trembled against her.

"How does it look?"

"Better than if the bolt hit you," his finger traced the edges of the wound. It hurt so badly she felt cold but some part of her yearned for the ache. "If you let me I can-"

"Can what?" She asked as his voice petered out.

"I can heal this," he sounded torn. It was a power he should not have. Something that came from the light.

"Can you still?" She asked looking down at her hands, the bacta-patch clutched in them. She could say no. She could tell him to use bacta. That would be the end of it.

"I haven't tried in a long time." His hand covered the wound. She could feel the size of it against her. The bloodied hole pressed against his palm.

"What about when you get hurt?"

"I learn a lesson from the pain," he answered.

She felt the heat beneath his palm. The force rose to meet his will. It rose in her like a tide, water slipping unnaturally upwards from her knees. She tried to make her heart behave. He was in her cells. It was slow the sensation of it. He dropped her shirt letting it cover his hand. His free hand gripped the sheet, his breath held in his chest. She could hardly bear the intimacy of it.

Kylo Ren was holding back. He was focusing. He could feel the spaces between her cells. Beyond microscopic, an intimate understanding of her. He wanted to be what filled those spaces. He wanted to fill her so completely it would tear her apart to lose him. So he was stopping himself. He was holding back. They were enemies. They were on opposite sides of this war. The war he had every appearance of winning but none of the peace.

She reached for his hand. He let out the breath he held and felt his intent surge forward. She inhaled at the feeling of it, her spine so stiff it arched.

There was a sound in the front hall. Rey shifted away from him. His work barely started. He tried to reign in his signature. Bury it so deep his mother would not find it.

"Leia," she whispered passing him the patch. He understood. They had no time. He lifted her shirt and pressed it to her skin. It was cold and goosebumps rose. He wanted to touch them.

Rey unfolded herself from the bed, she skirted around him, hips and legs brushing his shoulder and sides. Leia was talking to someone. Rey straightened her shirt, closing it properly.

"Don't come out," she warned. He didn't know what to do as she slipped from the door. He stayed for a moment. Her veil was balled up on the bed, half-dried. He took it and tucked it into his tunic. He stood up as he heard his mother's voice. He watched through the crack as Rey spoke to her. He couldn't see who was with her, their back was turned.

"Whose cruiser is on the pad?" Leia asked as soon as she saw Rey slip through the door.

"Mine," Rey shrugged. "I needed to make a quick getaway."

"What happened with Drex?" Leia slipped off her coat. Rey took it from her. She held her hand out for the rings Leia still owned. Four gold bands. Each set with different stones or insignia. Each representing a different type of power the Organa's held. Leia pulled them from her fingers and dropped them one by one into Rey's palm. Tonight they felt heavier.

"Luxtroopers came instead," Rey answered. She disappeared for a moment into Leia's dressing room. When she returned empty-handed she felt into an at ease position, Leia seemed comfortable debriefing her in front of her guest.

"Are you alright?" Leia smoothed the front of her gown. Her eyes darted to the man she had brought home.

"I am fine. I am worried about Drex." Rey pulled the drive from her pocket. "I am hoping I can get information out of this."

"What will you do with it?" Leia smiled at the man directing him to the barren parlor. He followed her. His head cocked. He was listening, Rey knew if Leia felt comfortable speaking in front of him then she should too.

"I will try to find her," Rey went to the sideboard. She poured two drinks and carried them to Leia and the Senator. As his hand touched hers she let herself be open to anything the force wanted to show her. She felt cold. When she pulled her hand back she half expected it to be covered in ice.

"What if she doesn't want to be found?" Leia asked. Her hand crept over the back of the worn sofa, reaching for but not touching the man sitting on the other end. It was time for Rey to go.

"She can tell me to my face," Rey bowed and left the room. She closed the door behind her.

"Who is he?" Kylo asked as soon as she returned. He took a step towards the door as if he meant to burst out. Rey held up her hands to block his path.

"I don't know."

"Tell me," he stepped closer to her, her hands dug into his cloak.

"Ben, I don't know," she repeated pushing him back. "You have to leave."

"How?"

She nodded her head behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to the small window.

"You can't be serious?"

She pushed him towards the window. He resisted her.

"I can wait until she goes to sleep."

"We don't know how long that will be." Rey pushed him again. He was like a brick wall. "Besides, they will miss you soon, Supreme Leader."

She always spit out his title like she hated the taste of it in her mouth.

The back of his legs hit the desk below the window. Kylo wasn't even sure if he would fit.

"Rey," he protested but she stepped away from him. He could have held onto her, pulled her close. Except, he knew that would be the trespass that broke the awkward peace between them.

"Leave," she repeated. She reached out and unlatched the window with the force. He awkwardly climbed his too-big body onto the desk. It was dark beyond the window. The landing pad was below him. He squeezed out of the tiny frame. His last look at Rey she was biting her thumb, looking at the floor.

The descent down the building was hampered by the weight of his cloak. The wind dragged at him. His feet were too big and did not catch edges easily. In the last ten feet, he slipped.

He began to fall. He reached out with the force trying to catch himself as the weight of his body pulled him towards the duracrete. He managed to slow his descent. He felt from above the tug of the force, leaving him hovering just above impact. He righted himself. He looked up to his mother's apartments, he saw movement and heard the window latch closed.

He smiled as he made his way to the cruiser.


End file.
